Griping is easy. Solving problems in an acceptable way is not. I've had a year to chew on what exactly it is about Microsoft's recent moves that bugs me, so it's time to put my money where my mouth is and try to be constructive. Here is my wish list for the next iteration of Windows, offered in the vain hope that someone at …

a MS wet dream

And the reaction in MS Towers is?...?

nah-nah-nah-nah-nah can't hear you.

Being serious for a moment.

MS are clearly trying to keep their revenue/gross margins up. With the lack of people buying into the Windows 8 nightmare they are seeing their daily takings dropping. So they are raising the prices of just about everything else in their price book.

Whilst this may have a short term $$$ value I am sure that many such as the Author will be looking for lower cost alternatives

IMHO, MS are in a downward spiral and these moves seem to be nearly the last throws of their dice in the Enterprise Game.

My Employers are firmly wedded to the MS Mantra with whole swathes of software written in .Net. Thankfully some of us have been preaching platform independence for some time. The ironic thing is that it is IBM who are key suppliers to us in many areas because of the ability to run things like MQSeries on a wide range of Hardware.

Even if the VDI licensing was the only thing that MS take seriously from above, that will be a step in the right direction.

Also the gap between educational and corporate pricing is rediculous.

I recently priced up the upgrade from my 2005 SQL server to 2012. Oh. My God.

Absolute minefield.

And after speaking to no less than 3 microsoft licensing 'experts' did they finally agree on a price that I should pay. I then asked a friend of mine who works in educatin to get a quote based on the same config. Thousands of $ difference for exactly the same product.

Absolute joke.

I'm currently spending that money on getting my DBs and applications that use them moved over to openSQL for a dev cost that's less than half the price of the upgrade

And after speaking to no less than 3 microsoft licensing 'experts' did they finally agree on a price that I should pay

That's an interesting risk in itself. Imagine the entry in the corporate risk management system: "unsure if we are exposed to FAST gangsters or not due to lack of license clarity".. The issue seems to be one of interpretation, and any lawyer can tell you that that is where it all gets *really* expensive..

Re: Education is how you LOCK THEM IN

It is possible to get open source software in use in educational contexts.

I got GIMP and Inkscape put on PCs at one of the centres I teach in, Audacity is already there, so students have alternatives to look at (even if they decide they are not as good as Adobe &c at least they have seen what they look like).

LibreOffice? No go, it 'might confuse people' - concern was file format differences and round-trip editing rendering assignments un-openable. I can appreciate why there is a need to reduce, or at least not increase, support calls &c so I'm not pushing that one.

Oddly enough, the other centre I teach in has got libreoffice available - but only on the admin machines!

yep

Educational pricing was always cheaper, at least for MS software as well as Novell software. In higher-ed, eh, we're not afraid of *NIX, so MS knows they have to cut deep or we'll make everyone use VT-220 terminals again. ;)

And I seem to recall there was a large price increase in MS-SQL late last year, even for EDU. Not sure what the reason was, other than MS needed more money. Luckily, I haven't needed 2012 yet, as 2008 is still doing what we need.

Re: Education is how you LOCK THEM IN

My son taught himself to read and write quite early (thanks, BBC), so a natural consequence of that was wanting to play with daddy's PC when sitting on my lap. So, after a month's worth using Word 2003 for typing in words and changing font, size and colour (your average 4 year old is only interested in shapes, so apart from the reading ability no surprise there), I started up OpenOffice instead and watched what happened.

I think it took him all but 3 seconds to work out where the controls were, after which normal service was resumed..

We need to tell kids about computer functions. In word processing, we need to tell them about the use of styles and document structures, not about which program to use. In spreadsheets, show how cells interact, not which icon does what. On desktops, windows work in a certain way (my pet peeve is people running every %ç*& app maximised). This is what kids need to learn, the basics. Anyone who claims they need to learn a brand specific app must either be a salesman or have shares somewhere.

The aforementioned son now uses Linux, Windows and OSX. Linux because I sometimes ask him to, Windows because that's where his homework lives and OSX as a late discovery because he's interested in music software. His next laptop will thus probably be a Mac..

@keithpeter - Re: Education is how you LOCK THEM IN

Re: Education is how you LOCK THEM IN

Look. Eadon, you merely make yourself look worse when you burble nonsense like this. MS Office can, and does, read and write the OD formats, and has done so for a _long_ time, and does so with trivial effort. i just did a save-as on a DOCX to ODT which opened just fine in Libre Office. If by 'half-hearted hack' you mean 'can open and write OD files without trouble', well...

And, as for Libre Office 'opening and saving in any word processing format you like'... I don't see how to make it open, for example, a Word Perfect file. Perhaps you could enlighten me on this?

There are reasons in plenty for not using MS Office. Use real reasons, don't make up stuff which can be disproved in _seconds_.

Re: Education is how you LOCK THEM IN

@James O'Shea

I've never had any problems with Open & Libre Office Writer opening WordPerfect documents. I occasionally have to add a ".wpd" extension to some of my older (5.x and 6) files but otherwise, they open fine. Not sure about WordPerfect after 8 though (that was when I switched to OpenOffice).

Re: Education is how you LOCK THEM IN

I can't get LO to open WP 12 documents and have them display properly. I've given up trying. And the persons who use WP 12 will not move to another platform, they like WPO. I personally don't give a damn, except that personal experience says that LO will NOT open all other word processing formats. I've got three WP files which won't open in LO sitting on a thumb drive on my desk. And all the downvotes in the world will not change that simple fact.

Of course, maybe I'm just Doing it Wrong. As I asked, perhaps someone can share the secret handshake with me?

Re: Education is how you LOCK THEM IN

I like WP too (though I'm just Linux now at home and haven't used WP in 10 years), I still miss the reveal codes feature. But sorry can't help with WP12. They've obviously changed the file format *again*... but let me guess, persons using WP12 are lawyers/paralegals?

Re: Education is how you LOCK THEM IN

Private Cloud licencing for SQL etc

Licencing a private cloud is getting better, but only for System Centre and Windows Server, can we see something more flexible for other products - e.g. Office Cloud Suite - which would licence any physical server/CPU for all the backoffice products (SQL, Exchange, Lync, Sharepoint, Project, etc...) so I don't need to provide rules on my cloud to nail VMs to licenced hardware.

Also do away with the silly rules about who can then use the software - we're a University, and would like to host a few servers for a College we support, but the licencing for that is a mess - so we'd have to run a seperate cloud licenced with their software just to run these - PITA.

Re: Private Cloud licencing for SQL etc

Dear Microsoft

I'd like to make a one-off purchase of Office, including Visio (but excluding Access) for 2013 (on the assumption it isn't as bug-ridden as 2010) to allow one flesh and blood user to use the software at any one time.

They won't do anything without leverage

Ask yourself this, will you still be using MS software if they comply with absolutely none of your requests?

If the answer is yes, then they have absolutely no reason whatsoever to implement any of your suggestions. You are locked in, and you will take whatever crap they throw at you. They don't care about existing customers because they know they won't lose them, they only care about getting new customers and new markets.

Re: Licencing

Have you ever trusted a bunch of civil servants ? UK government recommendations ? You mean the ones suggested by Microsoft ?

Oh and by the way, it's not the Public sector that will pay. It is you as a taxpayer that will contribute to Microsoft general welfare. This is the proper way for UK citizens to sponsor a US multinational.

Re: Also the gap between educational and corporate pricing is rediculous

From a legal standpoint, home and educational licences are also limited versions. You are expected to use the software to either learn about the product or to learn how to use the product. They specifically do not include the right to use the software for commercial purposes. So, one could argue that the massive difference in pricing is to allow commercial usage. Though I seriously doubt the companies that use this strategy overlook the above factor either.

Note that these pricing differences are common across many types of software; they're not just limited to Microsoft products. Adobe and Autodesk come to mind.

Poor sod! :(

I really pity you in your current situation!

You have nothing better left than kneeling in front of Microsoft, and clearly explaining all your thoughts most reasonably, and understandable, and throw in a sweetener frequently: "I am willing to pay exorbitant amounts!"

How does that feel? It must feel terrible, I am afraid, like crime victim continuously begging the perpetrator to accept all sorts of wealth, money and jewelry, to let him go, just let him go.

Hello, dear, there is no real need for you to use pay as a bribe to get what you reasonably demand. For those horrendous sums, you can even pay (e.g. me) for a planned exercise in migrating software; and offer a lot of training to your users on software that is free as in beer. Plus, hopefully, as well free as in 'libre'.

Re: Poor sod! :(

Re: Poor sod! :(

Ok Eadon, we would like to take you up on that offer.

I would like a replacement for Outlook implementing emails (the easy bit) as well as calendars and tasks to at least equivalent functionality as office 2003 & exchange (at a decade old, it's not too much to ask for?)

Acceptance is based not upon IT Professionals, but the end users who couldn't give a rats ass about if the software is from Microsoft or not.

Tech Support Mode is another variation of "dump TIFKAM".

The only real solution for VDI licensing...

The simplest and perhaps the best solution for VDI licensing is to create an OS-CAL, similar to the existing RDS-CAL. The OS-CAL would grant a named user the right to use any Microsoft OS for company business. Let us decide on the back end whether to use Windows 8, Terminal Services or XP, physical or virtual to support that user. Then business has a fixed cost per employee to budget for the OS and I don't have to worry if what I am doing is legal or not.

DHCP and RADIUS (NPS) and 802.1x

Make an AD object specifically for MAB, so I don't have to create bogus User accounts made from MAC addresses with reduced password complexity under AD just to use MAB with NPS and AD.

Second request:

Allow NPS to point to DHCP and if a reservation exists in the same subnet in DHCP with the same MAC as the MAB client request, then allow it. (you made it go the other way [NPS can tell the DHCP server not to allow an IP to be given out], but not this way [DHCP reservations authorizing NPS], what were you thinking?)

Do they not have non-802.1x devices in your organization? It can only be one of three things, 1) Microsoft allows 8 character passwords for the AD accounts, or 2) Microsoft use a third party RADIUS software for their MAB. I guess maybe 3) they have no port security or simply use switch only based port security.

It took Microsoft 10 years to allow me to right-click on a DHCP lease and convert it to a reservation, how long is it going to take for them to figure out those requests.

P.S. Bring back the "File Explorer", Search Window/Box, and the Start-menu from XP to Windows 8, oh and a working WiFi interface (one that doesn't lock up my router, or require me to "Troubleshoot" every time my computer is turned on. And one where I can change the priority of stored connections).

@AC 15:08GMT - Re: Requests to Microsoft

There is no earthly point in actually getting training or certification for a product that gets replaced after 3 years, because it takes a year or two to find out if the flaws in the new OS/Program are getting fixed, and therefore if people are deploying it in numbers sufficant to make getting training and certification in that system worthwhile.

And either reduce upgrade pricing to make it viable to upgrade an entire network in one go, or quit fucking around with compatibility between one version of a product and the next so SME's can upgrade through buying new boxes through dell/hp.

I'd just settle for several competing vendors so that 'lock-in' didn't happen. Funny how 'everyone' ( by which I actually mean WP supporters) insist that the mobile phone market needs several competing companies

Re: @anons

Yes, the products you mentioned sure are slick and wonderful, eh? So awesome and impressive that even though they're absolutely free compared to a MS or Adobe product that costs hundreds of dollars, people avoid it like the plague, and couldn't be bothered with installing that junk on their computers. (A few diehard neckbeards excepted)

Desktop Linux has been out for well over a decade, as has Libre Office and its predecessors, they get lots of free press and magazin/blog mentions (as in every time they run a lets have a look at Office alternatives feature) and despite all of that and all of the evangelizing and the gratis price, the percentage of people using the mess is still in the very low single digits. That speaks volumes. Of a truly awful and rejected product, in the eyes of consumers and office professionals... (Except obviously, the few Sysadmins, network admins and other assorted neckbeards for some odd reason likes the foulness that is FOSS.)

Re: @anons

Your answer, wonderful as it might seem to you, still doesn't address the problem that Microsoft essentially holds the world in a grip of their own deriving. They are out to make as much money as possible of course but they have essentially no commercial competition and up to date they have been able to do much as they like - that's now changing.

By the way you seem awfully familiar , with the same stilted views, right down to the icon. Are you of the prostetnic class really ?

Re: @anons

> they have essentially no commercial competition

The reason that they have "essentially no commercial competition" is that they have eliminated it using various means such as vaporware, outright purchase, withholding API information*, and contractual anti-marketing**.

What is left is software that is immune to such tactics. FOSS cannot be bought out of existence, it doesn't rely on OEMs or retailers who are influenced by MS, it cannot be undermined by MS giving away their products for free***.

* such as Wordperfect.

** OEMs were allegedly paid $5 to _not_ install Netscape. Per Box pricing was also to eliminate competition.

*** IE was given away for free to eliminate Netscape (and to avoid paying Spyglass). MS-DOS was given away for free (in a DOS/Windows bundle that was the same price as Windows) to eliminate DR-DOS.

Re: @anons

" they have essentially no commercial competition"

Yes I know the reasons for that. I was trying to point out the consequences not the reason. The fact that most of the world has managed to lock itself into a very unhealthy situation bodes very badly for costs and innovation. Even Trevor is suggesting giving MS even more money ( & power of course) in exchange for a few crumbs, admittedly crumbs he wants.

I don't know what can be done about it in the short term other than the change to mobile devices and a much healthier mix of OSs - I'm just glad that me and mine are completely out of it.